Kışlalı completed his primary and secondary education in
Kilis, and graduated from "
Kabataş Erkek Lisesi" high school in
Istanbul in 1957. Kışlalı received a degree from the School of Political Sciences at
Ankara University, in 1963, where he was the assistant editor of
College newspaper Yeni Gün. He got his PhD on "''Çağdaş Türkiye'de Siyasal Güçler
" (Political Powers in Contemporary Turkey'') from the
University of Paris, Department of Constitutional Law and Political Science. He worked as a lecturer in
Hacettepe University from 1968 until 1972, then working as an assistant professor at
Ankara University, and later an associate professor in 1977. In 1977 he was elected to the Turkish parliament,
Grand National Assembly of Turkey, as deputy of
İzmir. Between the years 1978 and 1979, he was appointed to position of ministry of culture, by prime minister
Bülent Ecevit. During his term of ministry, he restarted the effort of printing classical works by the state press, making these available to masses at reasonable prices. After the
military coup of 12 September 1980, Ahmet Taner Kışlalı went back to the academia, and became a full professor in 1988. He continued to give lectures on political science in Department of Communication at Ankara University, after his retirement. Starting from 1991, he had a regular column in the leftist newspaper
Cumhuriyet with the title "Haftaya Bakış" ("A View of the Week"). ==Death==